Unit information: Plants and People in 2026/27

Unit name	Plants and People
Unit code	ARCH30052
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Carrier
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	none
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	none
Units you may not take alongside this one	none
School/department	Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

Plants are central to human existence in everyday life: for food, shelter, medicine, clothing, art and aesthetics. What do anthropological perspectives tell us about the relationship of plants and people? This unit takes a 4-field anthropological perspective to demonstrate the socio-cultural, economic and political significance of plants, using a multi-perspective approach that takes in archaeobotany, linguistic and cognitive approaches, as well as social anthropological and material culture ones.

Weekly topics will include such themes as: researching the material remains of plants; plants, agriculture and ‘civilisation’; the cultural division of the natural world; the naming of plants: local names, scientific names; plant collections and archives; the cultural transmission of plant knowledge: how we learn about plants; plants as pets: the cultural history of houseplants; plants for healing: traditional medicinal uses and gardening as resilience; evil plants: poisons, drugs, and weeds; foraging livelihoods and lifeways; plants as ‘companion species’.

The unit will be taught through weekly lecture and discussion sessions, as well as a laboratory session, and excursions to such sites as the Bristol Botanic Gardens and Leigh Woods. Assessments will include a ‘plant portfolio’ where students reflect on their everyday interactions with plants, as well as an essay based on a plant-focused project using one or more of the approaches used in the unit.

The unit’s aims are:

• To develop a nuanced understanding of the importance of plants to human society, past and present.
• To introduce students to theoretical approaches to understanding plants and human society across the 4-fields of anthropology taught at Bristol.
• To introduce students to methodological approaches across the 4-fields and how they might be combined.
• To engage critically with key texts across cognitive, linguistic, socio-cultural, and evolutionary anthropology as well as in archaeology.
• To convey how understanding case-studies of plants and society links to much wider social, cultural, material, economic and political processes, as well as important debates on human cognition and development.

Your learning on this unit

By the end of this unit successful students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the importance of plants for human society past and present.
2. Understand and critically discuss theoretical approaches to plants and society from each of the 4-fields of anthropology.
3. Understand methodological approaches to plants from across the 4-fields and how they can be applied.
4. Comprehend key texts relating to plants and society across the 4-fields and discuss them critically.
5. Understand plants and society holistically, and connect the theme of plants to broader ones concerning materiality, cognition, human development, and socio-cultural processes, and political economy.

How you will learn

Weekly lectures and seminar discussions and activities, as well as field trips, practical sessions and film screenings.

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

See "How you will learn"

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

Essay, 1000 words, a biography of a particular plant (25%, ILOs 1-4)

Portfolio, 3000 words, critical analysis of seminar topics (75%, ILOs 1-5)

When assessment does not go to plan:

When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ARCH30052).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.

The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.